A list worth reading

Posted at 5:09 PM on December 28, 2007
by Euan Kerr

It's the time of year for lists: Christmas lists, holiday menus, shopping lists, pages of resolutions for the new year, lists of the best and the worst of the previous year. And then of course there are all the predictions for the coming 12 months. It's quite oppressive.

The people at the Registry also take the opportunity to remind people aboutbthe horrors of vinegar syndrome, the chemical reaction which has devastated film archives around the world.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington puts it this way: "Even as Americans fill the movie theaters to see the latest releases, few are aware that up to half the films produced in this country before 1950—and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920—are lost forever. The National Film Registry seeks not only to honor these films, but to ensure that they are preserved for future generations to enjoy."

The Library of Congress list just becomes more fodder for another list of course, the one titled "Films to see before I die"